According to Natwar Singh, "Unlike Nehru his knowledge of Sanskrit was profound. Nehru had a temper, PV a temperament. His roots were deep in the spiritual and religious soil of India. He did not need to Discover India". 11thPresident of IndiaAPJ Abdul Kalam described Rao as "patriotic statesman who believed that the nation is bigger than the political system". Kalam acknowledged that Rao in fact asked him to get ready for nuclear tests in 1996 but it was not carried out as government at center got changed due to 1996 general election and it was later carried out by Vajpayee led NDA government. In fact Rao briefed Vajpayee on nuclear plans.

Popularly known as PV, he studied part of his primary education in Katkuru village of Bheemdevarapalli mandal in Karimnagar district by staying in his relative Gabbeta Radhakishan Rao's house and studied Bachelor's in the Arts college at the Osmania University and later on went to Hislop College now under Nagpur University where he completed a Master's degree in law[14] Rao's mother tongue was Telugu and had an excellent command of Marathi. In addition to seven Indian languages (Telugu, Hindi, Oriya, Marathi, Bengali, Gujarati, Tamil and Urdu), he spoke English, French, Arabic, Spanish, German and Persian.[15][16] Along with his distant cousin Pamulaparthi Sadasiva Rao, Ch. Raja Narendra and Devulapalli Damodar Rao, PV edited a Telugu weekly magazine called Kakatiya Patrika in the 1940s.[17] PV and Sadasiva Rao used to contribute articles under the pen-name Jaya-Vijaya.[17][18]

Narasimha Rao was an active freedom fighter during the Indian Independence movement[21] and joined full-time politics after independence as a member of the Indian National Congress.[14] His tenure as Chief minister of Andhra Pradesh is well remembered even today for his land reforms and strict implementation of land ceiling acts in Telangana region. President's rule had to be imposed to counter the Jai Andhra movement during his tenure.

.[15] He rose to national prominence in 1972 for handling several diverse portfolios, most significantly Home, Defence and Foreign Affairs, in the cabinets of both Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi.[14] In fact, it is speculated that he was in the running for the post of India's President along with Zail Singh in 1982.[22]

Rao very nearly retired from politics in 1991. It was the assassination of the Congress President Rajiv Gandhi that made him make a comeback.[23] As the Congress had won the largest number of seats in the 1991 elections, he got the opportunity to head the minority government as Prime Minister. He was the first person outside the Nehru-Gandhi family to serve as Prime Minister for five continuous years, the first to hail from southern India and also the first from the state of Andhra Pradesh.[3][24] Since Rao had not contested the general elections, he then participated in a by-election in Nandyal to join the parliament. Rao won from Nandyal with a victory margin of a record 5 lakh (500,000) votes and his win was recorded in the Guinness Book Of World Records.[25][26] His cabinet included Sharad Pawar, himself a strong contender for the Prime Minister's post, as Defence Minister. He also broke a convention by appointing a non-political economist and future prime minister, Manmohan Singh as his Finance Minister.[27][28] He also appointed Subramanian swamy, an Opposition party member as the Chairman of the Commission on Labour Standards and International Trade. This has been the only instance that an Opposition Party member was given a Cabinet rank post by the ruling party. He also sent Opposition leader Atal Bihari Vajpayee, to represent India in a UN meeting at Geneva.

Starting in 1994 of the National Stock Exchange as a computer-based trading system which served as an instrument to leverage reforms of India's other stock exchanges. The NSE emerged as India's largest exchange by 1996.[36]

Reducing tariffs from an average of 85 percent to 25 percent, and rolling back quantitative controls. (The rupee was made convertible on trade account.)[37]

Encouraging foreign direct investment by increasing the maximum limit on share of foreign capital in joint ventures from 40 to 51% with 100% foreign equity permitted in priority sectors.[38]

Streamlining procedures for FDI approvals, and in at least 35 industries, automatically approving projects within the limits for foreign participation.[31][39]

The impact of these reforms may be gauged from the fact that total foreign investment (including foreign direct investment, portfolio investment, and investment raised on international capital markets) in India grew from a minuscule US $132 million in 1991–92 to $5.3 billion in 1995–96.[38] Rao began industrial policy reforms with the manufacturing sector. He slashed industrial licensing, leaving only 18 industries subject to licensing. Industrial regulation was rationalised.[31]

Rao energised the national nuclear security and ballistic missiles program, which ultimately resulted in the 1998 Pokhran nuclear tests. It is speculated that the tests were actually planned in 1995, during Rao's term in office,[40] and that they were dropped under American pressure when the US intelligence got the whiff of it.[41] Another view was that he purposefully leaked the information to gain time to develop and test thermonuclear device which was not yet ready.[42] He increased military spending, and set the Indian Army on course to fight the emerging threat of terrorism and insurgencies, as well as Pakistan and China's nuclear potentials. It was during his term that terrorism in the Indian state of Punjab was finally defeated.[43] Also scenarios of aircraft hijackings, which occurred during Rao's time ended without the government conceding the terrorists' demands.[44] He also directed negotiations to secure the release of Doraiswamy, an Indian Oil executive, from Kashmiri terrorists who kidnapped him,[45] and Liviu Radu, a Romanian diplomat posted in New Delhi in October 1991, who was kidnapped by Sikh terrorists.[46] Rao also handled the Indian response to the occupation of the Hazratbal holy shrine in Jammu and Kashmir by terrorists in October 1993.[47] He brought the occupation to an end without damage to the shrine. Similarly, he dealt with the kidnapping of some foreign tourists by a terrorist group called Al Faran in Kashmir in 1995 effectively. Although he could not secure the release of the hostages, his policies ensured that the terrorists demands were not conceded to, and that the action of the terrorists was condemned internationally, including Pakistan.[48]

Rao also made diplomatic overtures to Western Europe, the United States, and China.[49] He decided in 1992 to bring into the open India's relations with Israel, which had been kept covertly active for a few years during his tenure as a Foreign Minister, and permitted Israel to open an embassy in New Delhi.[50] He ordered the intelligence community in 1992 to start a systematic drive to draw the international community's attention to alleged Pakistan's sponsorship of terrorism against India and not to be discouraged by US efforts to undermine the exercise.[51][52] Rao launched the Look East foreign policy, which brought India closer to ASEAN.[53] He decided to maintain a distance from the Dalai Lama in order to avoid aggravating Beijing's suspicions and concerns, and made successful overtures to Tehran. The 'cultivate Iran' policy was pushed through vigorously by him.[54] These policies paid rich dividends for India in March 1994, when Benazir Bhutto's efforts to have a resolution passed by the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva on the human rights situation in Jammu and Kashmir failed, with opposition by China and Iran.[55]

Rao's crisis management after the 12 March 1993 Bombay bombings was highly praised. He personally visited Bombay after the blasts and after seeing evidence of Pakistani involvement in the blasts, ordered the intelligence community to invite the intelligence agencies of the US, UK and other West European countries to send their counter-terrorism experts to Bombay to examine the facts for themselves.[56]

Rao decided that India, which in 1991 was on the brink of bankruptcy,[57] would benefit from liberalising its economy. He appointed an economist, Dr. Manmohan Singh, a former governor of the Reserve Bank of India, as Finance Minister to accomplish his goals.[3] This liberalization was criticized by many socialist nationalists at that time.[58]

Rao has successfully decimated the Punjab separatist movement and neutralised Kashmir separatist movement. It is said that Rao was 'solely responsible' for the decision to hold elections in Punjab, no matter how narrow the electorate base would be.[59] In dealing with Kashmir Rao's government was highly restrained by US government and its president Mr.Clinton. Rao's government introduced the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA),[60] India's first anti-terrorism legislation, and directed the Indian Army to eliminate the infiltrators.[61] Despite a heavy and largely successful Army campaign, the state descended into a security nightmare. Tourism and commerce were largely disrupted. Special police units were often accused of committing atrocities against the local population, Rape, kidnapping, torture and detention under false accusations.[62]

In the late 1980s, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) brought the Ram Janmabhoomi issue to the centrestage of national politics, and the BJP and VHP began organising larger protests in Ayodhya and around the country

Later Liberhan Commission, after extensive hearing and investigation, exonerated PV Narasimha Rao. It pointed out that Rao was heading a minority government, the Commission accepted the centre’s submission that central forces could neither be deployed by the Union in the totality of facts and circumstances then prevailing, nor could President’s Rule be imposed "on the basis of rumours or media reports". Taking such a step would have created "bad precedent" damaging the federal structure and would have "amounted to interference" in the state administration, it said. The state “deliberately and consciously understated" the risk to the disputed structure and general law and order. It also said that the Governor’s assessment of the situation was either badly flawed or overly optimistic and was thus a major impediment for the central government. The Commission further said, "... knowing fully well that its facetious undertakings before the Supreme Court had bought it sufficient breathing space, it (state government) proceeded with the planning for the destruction of the disputed structure. The Supreme Court’s own observer failed to alert it to the sinister undercurrents. The Governor and its intelligence agencies, charged with acting as the eyes and ears of the central government also failed in their task. Without substantive procedural prerequisites, neither the Supreme Court, nor the Union of India was able to take any meaningful steps."[64]

In yet another discussion with journalist Shekhar Gupta, Rao answered several of the questions on the demolition. He said he was wary of the impact of hundreds of deaths on the nation, and it could have been far worse. And also he had to consider the scenario in which some of the troops might have turned around and joined the mobs instead. Regarding dismissal of Kalyan Singh (government), he said, "mere dismissal does not mean you can take control. It takes a day or so appointing advisers, sending them to Lucknow, taking control of the state. Meanwhile, what had to happen would have happened and there would have been no Kalyan Singh to blame either."[65]

In July 1993, Rao's government was facing a no-confidence motion, because the opposition felt that it did not have sufficient numbers to prove a majority. It was alleged that Rao, through a representative, offered millions of rupees to members of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), and possibly a breakaway faction of the Janata Dal, to vote for him during the confidence motion. Shailendra Mahato, one of those members who had accepted the bribe, turned approver. In 1996, after Rao's term in office had expired, investigations began in earnest in the case. In 2000, after years of legal proceedings, a special court convicted Rao and his colleague, Buta Singh (who is alleged to have escorted the MPs to the Prime Minister).[68] Rao was sentenced to three years in prison for corruption. "I sentence the accused PV Narasimha Rao and Buta Singh to rigorous imprisonment up to three years and a fine of 100,000 rupees ($2,150)," the judge said in his order.[69] Rao appealed to the Delhi High Court and remained free on bail. In 2002, the Delhi High Court overturned lower court's decision mainly due to the doubt in credibility of Mahato's statements (which were extremely inconsistent) and both Rao and Buta Singh were cleared of the charges.[70]

Lakhubhai Pathak, an Indian businessman living in England alleged that Chandraswami and K.N. Aggarwal alias Mamaji, along with Rao, cheated him out of $100,000. The amount was given for an express promise for allowing supplies of paper pulp in India, and Pathak alleged that he spent an additional $30,000 entertaining Chandraswami and his secretary. Narasimha Rao and Chandraswami were acquitted of the charges in 2003 and before his death, Rao was acquitted of all the cases charged against him,[72]

In spite of significant achievements under a difficult situation, In 1996 general elections Indian electorate voted out Rao's Congress Party and soon, Sonia Gandhi's coterie forced Mr. Rao to step down as Party President. He was replaced by Sitaram Kesri.

Rao rarely spoke of his personal views and opinions during his 5-year tenure. After his retirement from national politics, he published a Book called The Insider (ISBN 0-670-87850-2). The book, which follows a man’s rise through the ranks of Indian politics, resembled events from Rao’s own life.

According to a vernacular source, despite holding many influential posts in Government, he faced many financial troubles. One of his sons was educated with the assistance of his son-in-law. He also faced trouble paying fees for a daughter who was studying medicine.[73] According to PVRK Prasad, an IAS officer who was Narasimha Rao's media advisor when the latter was Prime Minister, Rao asked his friends to sell away his house at Banajara hills to clear the dues of lawyers.[74]

Many people across the party line supported the name of P.V.Narasimha Rao for Bharat Ratna. Telangana CM KCR supported the move to give Bharat Ratna to Rao.[79] Even BJP leader Subramanian swamy supported the move to give Bharat ratna to Rao.[80] According to Sanjay Baru PM Manmohan Singh wanted to give Bharat Ratna to Rao during his tenure.[81]

Rao had great interest in Indian literature among 16 languages. He was very fluent in many languages including his mother tongue Telugu, Marathi, Hindi, English, Tamil, Urdu, Kannada, Oriya, Sanskrit, French, and Spanish. He was able to speak 17 languages.[12][13] Due to his college education in Fergusson College In Pune, he was very prolific reader and speaker of Marathi. He translated the great Telugu literary work Veyipadagalu of Kavi SamraatViswanatha Satyanarayana into Hindi as Sahasraphan. He also translated Hari Narayan Apte's Marathi novel Pan Lakshat Kon Gheto? (But who thinks?) into Telugu. He was also invited to be the chief guest of Akhil Bhartiya Marathi Sahitya Sanmelan where he gave speech in Marathi.

In his later life he wrote his autobiography, The Insider, which depicts his experiences in politics.

Narasimha Rao changed the name of the Congress Party from Congress (Indira) to Bharatiya Rashtriya Congress (Indian National Congress), a symbolic but significant departure from one person owning up the party and to bring it back to its historic roots.[citation needed]

It has been noted that under the current leadership of Sonia Gandhi the Congress party attempts to undermine Rao's legacy on every occasion by denying him the credit for fostering economic reforms in India. For instance, it is reported that in a speech to mark the 125th anniversary of the Congress, the party president Sonia Gandhi "made it a point to ignore P.V. Narasimha Rao".[82][83] It is also reported that[84]

"Sonia Gandhi praised contributions of all Congress prime ministers except P V Narasimha Rao in her speech ... Making no mention of Rao in her 15-minute speech, she said Rajiv Gandhi scripted the course of economic policies that were followed by the government (headed by Rao) for the following five years."

Law and order entirely being a state subject, Rao was helpless to do anything other than warn the UP state Govt to maintain status quo on the Babri Masjid-Ram Janma Bhoomi issue. Yet, some commentators argue that while Rao should be blamed for his failure to protect the Babri Masjid, at the same time, he should be given credit for initiating the process of economic reforms in India. In an op-ed article published in Business Standard, A.K. Bhattacharya writes:[85]

"Even today, the Congress leadership shows extreme reluctance to acknowledge the role PV Narasimha Rao played in appointing Manmohan Singh as his finance minister and giving him the freedom to unveil the economic reforms package to bail the Indian economy out of an unprecedented crisis. The Congress leadership was correct in blaming Narasimha Rao for his political misjudgment on the Ayodhya issue. But it is now time the same leadership also acknowledged Narasimha Rao’s role in ushering in economic reforms."

^"The meek inheritor". India Today. 15 July 1991. Archived from the original on 17 Nov 2013. Retrieved 17 November 2013. Rao was one of the first converts to the new technology. Today, he is so adept with the machines that along with the 10 Indian and four foreign languages, Rao has also taught himself some computer languages and is now able to programme them.